Same Time Last Year

Worried. Anxious. Stressed. Burdened. Nervous. Dreadful. Panicky. These are just few words describing how I felt, same time last year, with barely a month before the 2006 Bar Exams.

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At the beginning of last year, I have set-up a time-table and schedule of all the topics that I have to read in preparation for the Bar. Each topic per Bar Subjects were carefully laid down to the effect that by August, I should have substantially read all the topics and that all I should have at my disposal were mere notes and nmeumonics.

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However, attending review school and accumulating lots of review materials certainly changed my review pattern so much that by August, I still feel that I haven't read all the things that I was supposed to read and that what I have learned was still inadequate for me to face the Bar.

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But hey, I made it. I passed the Bar. And I am blogging about the experience to share it with my friends who are in the very same situation as I was before.

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I still firmly believe that you don't have to know every law of the land to pass the BAR. Although little knowledge is dangerous, what we have learned from four years of studying in law school and another six months of review is no little to me. Everything you need to know, you have already learned. It is now just a matter of applying what you know in a given Bar question.

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Further, Bar answers are combinations of presentation, knowledge and logical sense. That is why you have to write legibly and neatly. A professor told me once that thru your handwriting, checkers of your examination papers can tell whether you exude confidence. So what I did in the Bar was even if I have no idea about the answers, I made intelligent guesses (if there is one) and just present my answers in the best presentation possible. (Except sa question sa political law asking who is the president of ICJ kasi blanko sagot ko don.)

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At this point, last year, even if there are topics in my schedule that I have not read, I threw my schedule away and just be selective of the things I have at my disposal one month before the exams. The materials I have at this time consisted of Codals of All the Bar Subjects, Jurisprudence on recent cases I obtained from San Beda, Digests of Landmark Cases and U.P. Law Center's Bar Q & A.

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So, to Aries, Tintin, Rico, Kaye, Zenia, Mhay and to all of my friends and other candidates who are going to take the Bar: Hang in there, I know you can make it. I will pray that God will give you good health and clarity of mind for this month and in the telling month of September.